Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

African Americans and Jews in the Twentieth Century: Studies in Convergence and Conflict, by V.P. Franklin (Editor), Nancy L. Grant (Editor), Harold Kletnick (Editor). 1999

Jewish/African-America Cooperation and Conflict, With Unmentioned Endek Parallels in Pre-WWII Poland

This scholarly anthology consists of many articles, of which I discuss a few. One theme is the identification of many African-Americans with ancient Jewish slavery in Egypt. (e. g, p. 300). This work includes references to Jewish Communists and African Americans in the 1930’s. The relatively recent alienation of blacks from Jews stems largely from disagreements about such things as affirmative action.

Some authors in this work contend that structural inequalities in American society prevented blacks from advancing the way that immigrant groups, including Jews, had done. On the other hand, ethnic groups, such as Polish-Americans, objected to being lumped with others simply as “whites”.

According to some authors, blacks tended to see Jewish liberals as “whites”, and did not always react positively to them. For instance, some of the whites involved in the Freedom Riders were seen as hypocritical in travelling to the South to denounce its segregationist policies while ignoring even greater patterns of segregation near their homes in the north, such as in Harlem.

REALITIES, NOT PREJUDICIAL ARCHETYPES

I write the remainder of my review from the vantage point of Jewish-Polish relations. Very often, black [and Polish] anti-Jewish sentiments are reflexively blamed on traditional Christian teachings about Jews. Such an explanation is, at best, a gross oversimplification. V. P. Franklin quotes Leonard Dinnerstein, who comments, “‘…since the 1930’s there have been enough specific examples of negative interactions between African Americans and Jews for African Americans to assume that they are responding to realities in their lives rather than building on myths from the past.'” (p. 300). The same goes for Poles interacting with Jews.

NOT JEWS AS SCAPEGOATS

At times, black [and Polish] anti-Jewish sentiments are blamed on the oppressed group feeling better, or trying to fit in with the oppressor, by putting Jews down. Others reject such thinking. Joe W. Trotter Jr., quotes James Baldwin who said, “‘The Jew has been taught–and, too often, accepts–the legend of Negro inferiority; and the Negro, on the other hand, has found nothing in his experience with Jews to counteract the legend of Semitic greed.'” (p. 205). [The reader can substitute Pole for Negro.]

PARALLELS TO THE POLISH EXPERIENCE WITH JEWS

Now consider the decidedly hostile Jewish-Endek relations, and apply a parallel to the black-Jewish experience. (Endeks were the followers of Roman Dmowski, a prominent Polish patriotic leader accused of anti-Semitism for opposing Jewish influence and economic dominance, and of advocating boycotts against Jews.)

Malcolm X is quoted by V. P. Franklin as follows: (quote) I will bet that I have told five hundred such challengers that Jews as a group would never watch some other minority systematically siphoning out their community’s resources without doing something about it. I have told them that I tell the simple truth, it doesn’t mean that I am anti-Semitic; it merely means that I am anti-exploitation. (unquote)(p. 293).